This book is gross. I don't understand where the love story is. The guy is an obsessed pervert and the supposed romantic ending has nothing to do with love at all. There are so many disturbing images from this book that still haunt me.

One of our members suggested this book, the rest of really had no exposure, other than seeing it at the book store. When we met a month later, only one out of 12 had finished it. During our discussion we agreed, it was one of worst selections we have ever made. We were baffled by the high acclaims and great reviews, (including Amazon's 4-5 star ratings), that this book received. Overall, we were mostly disturbed by Florentino's overwhelming fixation on Fermina and his overzealous sexuality as he fumbled through life trying to forget her. This didn't seem like a great love story to us, it seemed like obsession. We agreed that it could be cultural, but to us, his behavior seemed like stalking, it was over the top preoccupation. Her reaction also didn't make sense and made us question if she really loved him or if she was just in love with the idea and/or memory of him. Yes, this novel had a nice lyrical rhythm with beautiful details and descriptions, but it wasn't enough for us. I think I speak for the group when I say that we would definitely NOT recommend this book. The majority of us plan to either give it away or sell it on our garage sales.

Garcia Marquez can write. No doubt about it. The man is a marvel. I'd be puddling along, reading of Fermina Daza, and her adolescent passion (and his for her) of Florentino Ariza, or of her married life with Juvenal Urbino when I'd be swept away by a phrase or image, or the smell of bitter almonds. REmarkable. Poignant. Humorus. Heartbreaking. So much like life. The unfolding of love after youth has faded to no more than a whisper was an unexpected gift -- we can't all be in our twenties forever, no matter what our inner clock thinks.


It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

Love in the Time of Cholera / 0-14-011990-6

On the face of it, Love in the Time of Cholera would seem to be the biographical telling of the life of a man who experiences every type of love there is - passionate love, quiet love, unrequited love, angry love, insane love, young love, old love, adulterous love, and thousands of other flavors of love.

The main character, Florentino, seduces and is seduced by thousands of women and - taken literally - no, this is not a great guy. His adulterous affairs end messily, in one case with the murder of the unfortunate woman, and he grieves less for her than he worries for his own safety. Another affair ends after the jealous other man destroys all the furniture in the lady's house - Florentino finds that without the sumptuous furnishings, he is no longer attracted to the poor lady. He seduces his underage ward, and then leaves her distraught and emotionally abused when his 'life love' is suddenly widowed. Florentino is a breezy wind, blowing through women's' lives quickly and forgettably.

Yet I do not believe this tale is meant to be taken literally. It is a metaphor for every possible flavor of love. One man experiences all these loves in a way that a real human never could - who has the time or energy? - in order to provide a "control group" if you will for us to observe his responses in each situation. His selfishness and self-delusion are exaggerated here that we may see our own self-delusions in love. We would not be as cruel or as heartless as Florentino can sometimes be, but we CAN be cruel and heartless in smaller, similar ways.

I'm rather shocked by the fanfare for this novel. The sexual escapades were nauseating, and I vomited in my mouth a little when I read about the pedophilia, which Marquez excuses with a shrug of the shoulders and a wave of the hand. And while the idea of unrequited love can be noble, and the thought of seniors feeling giddy again is sweet, there was nothing of nobility, and little sweetness in this book. Love conquers all? Hardly. Fermina Daza was correct the majority of her life; stay away from Florentino Ariza. Don't waste your precious time and degrade your sense of morality in the process.

I admit I never finished this book. After I didn't enjoy the beginning, I made myself read 50 more pages. I still didn't enjoy it, so I quit. The reviews say it is the greatest love story of all time, so I was expecting this exciting love story. For the part I read, it was very slow moving and took itself much too seriously. A big disappointment.

Well, this will be the first and last time I ever read anything with the label 'Oprah's Book Club' on it. To think I actually thought this would be a depressingly romantic novel. Well, it only took me about half a year to realise that this was one of the most painful reads I've ever experienced. I don't understand the appeal, now that I have finally completed it. I wanted heartbreaking anguish, torturous characters. But what I got was a mopey stalker type novel, who's main character reaches pedophile levels. And we were supposed to feel sorry for him?

The writing is stuffy and laborous and would not have been so utterly boring if the actual story was a bit more interesting. I connected with none of the characters and I barely felt the passing of 50 years in the novel. It seemed rushed, but at the same time, I felt as if the book would never end.

It all seemed completely unrealistic to me and while I can understand how someone would find this book appealing and romantic, It had the opposite effect for me.

If you are a deep thinker, you might want to try Rumi & Self Psychology (Psychology of Tranquility.

In addition, you might want to try Sara's Therapy: The Way to Purity. A session by session dialogue of a client who went through the self actualization and self growth processes.

This is one book i can't get past the first chapter... it's just not interesting to me. I'll pass on it. I wasted good money and no more Oprah bookclub for me!

I bought Love in the Time of Cholera not only because it was on Oprah's list but also because it won a Nobel prize. I figured it must be super good to have won both the Nobel prize and widespread acclaim by Oprah. Plus, I had heard it was "one of the greatest love stories of all time." Not so. At least not for this reader.

First and foremost, if you are used to reading popular literature, beware! This is a TOUGH read. It was not what I expected at all and I found it difficult to get through. For me, this was like trying to read John Updike--long sentence structures and difficult language...and I consider myself to be an above-average reader (but then, who doesn't!). It was not a page turner by any means, and, as the story progressed I found it more and more difficult to get through, mainly because I didn't like either main character. I really ended up pushing myself through it just to complete the story and see if offered any sense of satisfaction (which it didn't).

The story about 2 love-struck teenagers seems a bit silly in our times, but considering the time it was set, it was entirely believable. What became unbelievable was the way Florentino continues to pine away for Fermina for 50 years after their love affair ended. I found nothing endearing about his devotion. I actually found it weak and disgusting...wondering why any woman would want a man like this and why any man would allow himself to behave in such a way. I mean, "get over it dude!" Granted, Fermina never knows the true level of Florentino's pining and also never knows of the solace he tried to find in 100's of affairs, but as a reader, I was rooting for her to turn him away, not give in to his continued advances. As I was reading I was trying to figure out if the author wanted this reaction from the reader. I'm still not sure. But what I do know is that there are a LOT of people out there who are happy that Fermina and Florentino were reunited. As for me, the thought of being with such a wimpy man makes me sick! :) There just is not a lot to like about Florentino so be prepared to force yourself to follow his story.

I'm sure there is plenty of book club fodder in this story...exploring different themes on love, the reader's reactions to the characters, etc. If you're into identifying and exploring themes and looking for wisdom in modern literature, then this may be the book for you. If you're like me who's just looking for a good book to read to entertain me for a few days, then skip this one.

'Love in the Time of Cholera' is one of the most unique books I've ever read. It's not quite what I expected. When I first started reading, I was expecting a love story and the start was a bit 'off' for me. But then I kept on reading. After about 50 pages, the love story began.

I'm kind of torn in my review here, the love story is good, but the oddities were a bit much. I found I kept on reading just to see how the story ended more out of curiosity than anything else.

One thing I really liked what that Gabriel García Márquez writes the story like poetry at some parts. It was beautiful to read some passages.

An achingly beautiful story of Fermina and Florentino, adolescent sweethearts unable to consummate their love until old age. An exceptional half-century story of unrequited love. Highly recommended.

This is the worst book I've ever read. I put it down half way through and read something else. Then I went back to it. Still awful. I shared it with two friends and they couldn't finish it either. It was boring, the writing is terrible and the story is preposterous. Save your money (and time) read anything by Jodi Picoult and enjoy!

This is the worst book I've ever read. I put it down half way through and read something else. Then I went back to it. Still awful. I shared it with two friends and they couldn't finish it either. It was boring, the writing is terrible and the story is preposterous. Save your money (and time) read anything by Jodi Picoult and enjoy!

This novel both condemned and redeemed itself in the main characters, namely Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Although extremely sad, the story as a whole truly makes one think: Does love like this exist? How many people have wasted away their lives with the wrong person in order to be "safe"?

Although more dialogue would have made it an easier read, the author's beautiful and flowing descriptions kept me interested. I feel that this book is both a wake-up call/reality check and a wonderful concept for the hopeless romantic.

After much fanfare by Oprah Winfrey and several weeks on various bestseller lists, I had high expectations for Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. However, I found this story to move as slowly as a snail stuck to a glue board. Dense descriptions interfered with the plot.

García Márquez's fifth novel is set in a 19th-century fictional South American port city. A young telegraph operator, Florentino Ariza, carries on a romance--through an exchange of love letters only--with the beautiful but rebellious Fermina Daza. When Fermina's father finds out about the relationship, he sends his teen-aged daughter away.

Upon her later return, Fermina no longer has feelings for Florentino Ariza and marries the respectable Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a man who the reader is twice told likes to eat asparagus and smell the odor of it in his urine.

Despite being spurned by Fermina, Florentino Ariza continues to pine for her for over 50 years, on occasion almost stalking her. He claims to be saving himself for Fermina but has affairs with hundreds of women. During this period, the reader is often treated to Florentino's intestinal ailments and his need for enemas.

At one time, Florentino considers pursuing his secretary, Leona Cassiani, and she him, but when she is raped on the beach by an unknown assailant who, we are told, provided her with the best sex she ever had, she no longer has any desire to bed Florentino Ariza. Instead, she walks the beach at night hoping her rapist will ravish her again. As a woman, I was insulted by this passage in the novel, a passage only a man could write. And I was shocked that Oprah Winfrey, a woman who has been so open about her own sexual abuse, could recommend a story in which a character felt this way.

Quill says: Don't bother taking Love in the Time of Cholera to the seashore this summer; it's one book you can leave on the shelf.

Several people have indicated that this is a difficult read. It is. Perhaps it's the translation, perhaps it's the abundance of imagery. But whatever it is, it's worth the effort.

Having read One Thousand Years and The Handsomest Drowned Man, I'm familiar with his use of prose and magical realism tendencies. If you can get past the linguistic hurdles, you're in for a wonderful story of the commitment of one man's heart.

Oh what a fabulouos book! The imagery in this book will go with me forever. It took me back to a place and time that I'll never be physically, but I feel like I was there and lived through it. The story is very, very sad. So if you are looking for happy endings, this book is not for you. I can't wait to read more of this writers works.

I was left awed, shocked, disgusted, amused, inspired and mostly bewildered by this amazing tale. Florentino is a hopeless romantic who waits almost half a century for his true love. This story also chronicles the married life of his love- Fermina with Dr Urbino, in addition to Florentino's numerous love affairs. The prose is so engrossing and rich that at times it captivates the readers, but it also requires a slow down at times ,in order to grasp the essence. This novel is a translation from Spanish and still retains its true flavor, thereby making it even more remarkable.This book cannot just be taken in a literal sense, there is more to it than what appears on the surface. Garcia's ability to use magical realism (by treating love as a disease) with immense effect definitely makes him one of the best writers of this era.

I found this book to be very difficult to read. It didn't hold my attention. While there were psychological threads holding it together, they weren't strong enough to make up for the dry story, the repetitive style and the wordiness. Oprah and I usually agree on "books to read." We didn't agree on this one.

I had wanted to read this book for a long time, but when I finally checked it out of the library, I put off reading it. At the time I was reading a very long, 600+ page book, and I when I finally started reading Love in the time of Cholera, I was put off by its beginning, which to me seemed to have no point. However, I kept at it, and soon I was hooked.
The story occurs over a 50 year period, starting at the end and then going back to beginning to explain how things got there. In the late 1800's, in an unspecialized South American city, a boy and girl fall in love. However, their love is never consumated, and they barely speak, choosing instead to correspond with letters. Finally the girl chooses to marry a rich doctor- but the boy never gives up, waiting for the day Fermenia's husband will die. The author's style kept me going, as his writing style helped me imagine the story perfectly and beatifully. I loved this book!

My husband went into a bookstore to get me a book for our first anniversary and requested a love story. He was told that Love in the Time of Cholera was the best love story in existence, and subsequently brought me a lovely hardback edition. It is certainly my favorite work by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, perhaps because it is short on the magical realism that permeates his other novels. Marquez has a gift of taking unlikely characters and situations and turning them into stories that ring distinctly true. There are several types of love in this novel: childish infatuations that dissolve or degenerate into obsession, love that begins as dislike and matures into dependence, friendships, and many sexual pairings of varying emotional involvement. Marquez also describes the Magdalena river with such love that I long to see it, an impossible wish as even during the timeframe of the novel it no longer exits as it once did.

Have you ever "carried a torch" for someone or knew someone who did? This book explores taking this type of an obsession to new extremes. I know it's a book about all kinds of love (romantic, illicit, parental, etc.) but the main thrust of the book is the unrequitted love of a man for a woman. It's a 52 year plus story of a man who has 'gone loco' for a woman. You will feel contempt, sorrow, horror, amusement, and pity for him. Then you will feel contempt, sorrow, horror, amusement and pity for her. Why can't they get together? Why does she turn against him so abruptly? Why doesn't he give up? Why, why, why. It's a book full of questions. You will get the sense that a life is being wasted and in a constant state of turmoil. You will then get the sense that another life is moving toward fulfillment and peace of mind. All of these feelings will culminate near the end of the book. That's when you'll feel happy and sad for both of them and when you'll feel that life - their life and your life - is pretty much so fast moving it's a blur. This book is like that. All of us are caught up in this too fast, too short life. Enjoy every minute of it and take in all the details along the way. That's the message Marquez sent me. Thanks for an incredible ride!

I am perplexed at the quantity of people who rate this high and how often it shows up on "top to read" books lists. I found the writing beyond verbose, but perhaps it reads better in Spanish? There were many times I had to re-read a paragraph to decipher what was actually taking place. Run on and on sentances seemingly going nowhere.
The characters were not well developed, I never felt that I knew them, never felt like I cared what happened to them. As a protaginist Florentino Ariza is an unsympathetic character. He wastes his life on a youthful crush (because I never found anything that made me believe it had been anything more than that between he and Fermina) all the while biding his time with one sexual liasion to another. Finally he degenerates into having an affair when he is well into old age with a school girl (who he seduces and then drops when Fermina becomes available) - not "all the shades of love" as some reviewers would write, more like sexual opportunism on Florentino's part and boredom on Fermina's. The passages where Florentino describes his sexual affair with the school girl (his guardian) are uncomfortable to read and just plain creepy.
I never believed the characters, never bought into any sort of love story, and found the pacing and writing tiresome.

The books requires full focus on the story. You won't be let down for your efforts! A fully told story about ways of love and the distortion of reality that comes with a burning passion of the heart. It is a really great read and it surely deserves its place in the world of classic books!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez at his best as a storyteller. Un libro precioso, no solo para los que amamos a Don Gabriel, si no para cualquiera que ama una buena historia.

Thank you to the other one star raters for letting me retain a little faith in the human race. This was a horrible book. There is nothing about love in it. It could be called sex in the time of cholera - and sex in its lowest and most self serving forms.

For some reason this book tries very hard to get its audience to be sympathetic to a man who falls in love or so he thinks with a girl he doesn't know. Trying to be faithful to the "Love of his life" he sleeps with every one in his town from widows to 14 year old girls when he is past fifty. Not the type of person I am usually sympathetic for. The main character doesn't have any redeeming qualities except poetic writing but even that is over the top. How can you write thousands of pages of love to a girl you know nothing about except for her name? This book is so unrealistic, the characters are not interesting and the plot keeps getting sided track to events that have no real importance at all. The only likable character (and I say that lightly) dies from a pathetic tragedy that seems at first to be relevant to the plot even if it is unlikely but no that too was just more wasted words. If this is what I can expect from Oprah's list I will steer clear.

Thought this would be great, probably because of the hype and because I had heard that his other book was terrific. Coulnd't get past 7 pages of boredom. Passed the book on and was told the same thing by someone who also passed it on with the same result.

For those who think of love as moonlight and roses, or are looking for a book filled with sentimental sweetness, this is not the novel for you. For those looking for a treatise on the manifold forms that love can take: passion, devotion, affection, tenderness, violence, complacency and understanding -- and how they inter-relate to the larger world of society, politics and religion, then give this a try. It is, quite simply, one of the Great 20th Century novels. It's a shame that it has been typecast as "a tale of unrequited love," because it is so very much more.

Fermina and Florentino are portrayed in "Love in the Time of Cholera" as an eternal match of lovers. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a master in his writings. Florentino is able to maintain his love for his chosen beauty throughout his life. He reluctantly accepts her marriage to another, but he continues to cherish and adore the one true first love of his life. Marquez is a true master at his descriptions of love, and sex and beauty as few authors are capable. His books are very readable, and glue the reader to the characters as if one is actually thrust into the story of his dynamic pictures. I find Marques to be the writer of some of the most compelling novels that I have ever read. I would not hesitate to recommend his books to become a portion of one's favorite library section. Dale B. Haufrect, M.D., M.A. Med DataLink, LLC

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA is an immersion experience, in which others' minds and memories envelop the reader. I enjoyed it even when I thought I wasn't enjoying it.

The book is about three main characters, Fermina Daza, Florentino Ariza and Dr. Juvenal Urbino, and it begins with Urbino visiting the home of a friend who has killed himself. Urbino is getting on in years, but he has been close with this man and is a distinguished physician, so he visits the home and attends to any needs, even though the death has occurred the night before a big feast day. After this Urbino returns home, and we are immersed into his story, his wife Fermina Daza's and the love of her younger days, Florentino Ariza.

Ariza was swept off his feet by the young Daza, and wooed her with letters secretly passed between the two against the wishes of her father. Their sweet, young love, however, ended through a series of events and she married Urbino, and spent her long life with him. Ariza never gave up thoughts of her or hope that they would be together, and he kept track of her avidly while moving up in his company and in his work. A devotee of romantic love, he competed in poetry contests and wrote letters for the illiterate to help them woo their true loves.

This is the basic plot of the book, which is long, involved and very stream of consciousness. Marquez wonders into the pasts of minor characters with great depth, and a reader who is expecting more conventional plot lines may think that in the end, something will happen that will make this information relevant, but such is not the case. However, this time spent on background is not "wasted" or regrettable; it really paints a detailed landscape of all the characters that creates a very rich reader experience. I also experienced an unusual sense of the book's rhythm: the beginning seems very slow and plodding, and yet the end seems to come in a flash, though the style of the writing doesn't change perceptibly.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and looking back on it, the memories of what happened in the novel almost feel like my own memories. Perhaps that was what Marquez was trying to create with this lifelong love story -- a sense that the passage of time mingled with memories is a fluid, complex, dynamic experience for all involved.

I was really disappointed in this book. The method of storytelling, while unusual and somewhat poetic, is rambling and almost painful to stay with. I did manage to finish it, but only because I forced myself to read to the end, not because I enjoyed it. The author slips key parts of the story into rambling text, to the point where I had to go back and reread a sentence or even a paragraph to verify that I had read it right. (Did he just say that? Did that really just happen? In the middle of a nothing paragraph?) Things don't need to be pointed out to me, but I find this style of writing very anti-climactic. I won't spoil the end, but I will say the entire book was just depressing and disappointing.

When a brilliant writer has little to say and gets paid by the word, this is the kind of book that results. I always finish the books I start. I usually read them straight through. With this book I read three other books before finishing this one. The story is short and trite. It could be told very elegantly in 10,000 words. The rest is very well-written filler. As well-written as it is, filler is still filler and makes the reader work too hard to remain interested. I ended up not caring about either character (as they were not that interesting). I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but it never did. I will check out some of his shorter titles. He writes brilliantly, so it may be worthwhile to read something of his where he has a story worth telling.

He is Marquez!
We all know who he is.
But truly, this is a book that one wishes, upon setting it down, that it had more pages. And not because it is inconclusive, [even though it is, in many ways inconclusive] but moreso, you want more pages because you want the two characters at the end to sort of fall through the rabbit hole, be reborn or something... see life over again. Have another try at the novel's final word, "Forever."

It is set in some nameless Caribbean seaport city, human topography being more important to Marquez, in this novel, than geography.
Takes place between 1830 and 1930.
This is how I am going to do this... this is how I am going to begin to speak of an impossible to summarize, sprawling epic.
I will speak of the three main characters:

Florentino Ariza:
As a young telegraph officer, delivering a message to the Daza household, he observes the precociously beautiful Fermina Daza. He obsessively [to put it mildly] falls in love with her, at first sight.
Complications arise [ no pun intended]... Fermina's father forbids any sort of relationship, and so the two [Fermina is, for the time being, equally enamored] communicate by way of clandestine letters.
Fermina is banished to a foreign land, and in this meantime, Florentino develops into an increasingly [physically] unappealing young man.

Fermina Daza:
Partially described above.
But this is because she can only be partially described, by anyone. She is the "crowned goddess."
She is everything as beautiful as poor Florentino is forced to only imagine!
A Caribbean Juliet, about to meet her Romeo.
Ahhh.... but it shall not be Florentino, after all!
When she returns from her banishment, she still feels that she loves her young suitor.
That is, until she meets him one day in a crowded street, and, upon seeing him, she instantly feels that it was "all an illusion." She is no longer in love.
Florentino is understandably devastated. [Romeo to the core! Would gladly stab himself if he could find a sharp enough dagger...]
And things are about to get worse for him, because soon, due to a sickness, Fermina meets....

Dr. Juvenal Urbino:
Dr. Juvenal is easy on the eyes! He is everything Florentino is not. Striking, handsome, debonair, and RICH! He too, falls for Fermina's charms, and she, for his. They marry. Florentino, now wishing himself dead, imposes a self-banishment upon his own life, in an attempt to forget his love for Fermina. Distance from her [as is all distance from true love] is futile. So, he opts for displacement! Since he cannot have her, perhaps he should sleep with half of the entire female world, instead.
He attempts to do just this.... sustaining 622 illicit affairs, until.... until... an aged Dr. Juvenal tries to rescue his errant parrot from a tree.... and...
I SAY NO MORE.
It is too good of a story for me to say anything else about it.
If you have not yet read Love In The Time Of Cholera, I urge you to do so.
Get a copy!
The only other Marquez I have read is One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I declare this book [Cholera] as being much better!
He is Marquez!

I read this book in the weeks leading up to the DVD's release. I admit that I wasn't too thrilled reading one of Gabriel García Márquez's books since he's not big on magic realism. I figured I could at least watch the movie if I didn't understand the movie.
I agree w/the other reviewer that this book was slow but I found it slow only in certain parts. I understood that mood, emotions & everything else had to be explained so one could understand the full picture. I also knew that if I kept reading, I would finally understand why Fermina said & did what she said. (Yes, you do find out.)
I'm not sure if I loved it enough to read it again, but I am thankful that I read the book. I'm also thankful that I read the book before watching the movie.

I think the book went way too slow. It came highly recommended and I was disappointed. It was the kind of book that I just made myself read because I don't like to just stop a book half way through.

i was expecting to read this book in no time...i am really struggling with it b/c it's so boring & he just babbles about nothing & goes into detail about the most mundane things....there are way too many scenes with detailed sexual encounters that it reminds me of those romance novels...it's not what i expected by this author & by all the raves from people. I was on a role w/reading books this year & this book just put it to a halt b/c i can't get to the end without falling asleep or zoning out.

This book could have been great. However, you have to wade through piles and piles of non-essential rubbish to get to the meat of the story (which could have been told in about 1 chapter. Not romantic, but very James Joyce in that the characters are flawed, unhappy people who you're not sure should be together at all. The most difficult thing about this book is the lack of editorial advice. It needs more chapter breaks, less digression, something to make it flow better. Took me a LONG time to finish, and I'm not happy I wasted all of that time when I could have read something more fulfilling.

My book club selected this book thinking it was a love story and thinking that it would be a good read since it was made into a movie, but we were wrong on both assertions. I think I may have been the only one to finish it. Just as The Great Gatsby and just as Romeo and Juliet are not love stories, if you look closely beneath the prose and under what Marquez writes about Florentino, the crazed lover, you will find that this is not a love story either, but a question of the importance of stability in life. I'm not sure if this was what Marquez was getting at but who we side with, may tell us a lot about us but it will not make us swoon and wish we had a lover as crazy as Fermina Daza's.

A friend insisted that I read her copy of this book. I have honestly tried to enjoy it even half as much as apparently she did but.....slow is an understatement. Also, the lack of chapters and sometimes even paragraphs made it even harder to read.....harder to come back to ...etc. I finally scanned the last 100 pages and considered it a victory that it was finished.

Love in the Time of Cholera is an emotional story of love and its hardships. Throughout the novel love is compared to things such as flowers, water, and birds. In this story, the emotion of love is so great, that it literally makes men sick.
Dr. Urbino is a very sophisticated, well-respected doctor. He is not a very emotional man. The story begins with him finding his best friend lying on the floor, after committing suicide. He is afraid of aging, so he killed himself. He usually does not feel pain for his patients, but his old chess partner was very close to him. He finds an eleven-page suicide note in which he explains that he has had an affair with a woman for about half of his life. Dr. Urbino is mad that his friend does not tell him about his lover. He has an intense desire to tell his wife, Fermina, about the letter, but he does not.
This story switches tenses often. The story now goes back to before Dr. Urbino is married.
Fermina Daza is a young women living in a Caribbean Port. She lives with her domineering father and her aunt. Her aunt acts as a motherly figure since Fermina's mother passed away when she was young. Fermina and her aunt like to go on walks together. Florentino Ariza is assigned to deliver a telegram to Fermina's house. This is where he first sees her. He falls in love with her. Fermina studies at the Academy of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. Florentino has no opportunity to talk to Fermina, because her aunt is always with her on her walks to and from school. Florentino decides to sit on a bench and pretend to read the newspaper so that he can look at her every day. Her aunt is aware of what he is doing but does not tell Fermina. When she notices him, her aunt says that he is probably doing it because he is in love with her. Her aunt assures her that one day, he will write her a lovely letter confessing his love for her. Fermina wants this letter to be delivered. Florentino practically stalks Fermina for he is so in love with her. One day when Fermina's aunt leaves her by herself, he approaches her. He asks her to accept his letter, but he says he cannot without her father's permission. She tells him to return every afternoon and wait to approach her until she changes her seat. When she does, he gives her the letter and they continue to exchange letters of love for quite some time, until Mother Superior catches her writing a love note. She tells Fermina's father and she is sent out of the country to forget about her lover. However, they keep in touch while she is gone. When her father feels she has forgotten her lover, he brings her home. When Florentino sees her for the first time he does not recognize her. She is much more mature looking. Fermina's father has Dr. Urbino come to their house because he thinks that Fermina has cholera. Dr. Urbino falls in love with Fermina. Her father continues to set up dates and eventually they marry. They do not truly love each other when they marry, but believe that they will grow to love each other. On their honeymoon, Fermina is terrified of losing her virginity. The first night on the ship, she suffers seasickness. Urbino comforts her, and eventually convinces her to have sex. After three months, Fermina is pregnant.
While on her honeymoon, Florentino can only think of Fermina. He is sick with love. He drinks cologne and eats flowers so that he can have her scent with him. He is sent out of the country to work for his uncle. On the ship ride there, he is dragged into a room where a girl seduces him and he looses his virginity.
Fermina returns from her honeymoon and her and Urbino's relationship is very strange. Meanwhile, Florentino has turned to sex as a relief from the pain he feels for Fermina. He has 622 affairs, but still feels he is a virgin because he cannot love anyone as much as he loves Fermina. He longs to be with her, but he cannot because of her husband. He is the only thing in his way of Fermina. He is not a violent person, so he is going to wait until he dies to confess his feelings to Fermina again.
When Urbino finally dies, Florentino goes to the wake. He has waited fifty-one years, nine months, and four days for this opportunity to confess his love for Fermina once more. If you would like to know what happens to Fermina and Florentino's relationship you will have to read the book and find out!
I enjoyed this book. It was a bit difficult to read and understand, so I would recommend it to an older audience. There is a lot of switching back and forth between the past and present. Also, there are many references to sex and prostitutes. This novel depicts love in many different ways. It can be a great thing that makes one happy, or it can be an illness that literally drives one mad. Love also gives one's life meaning. I really enjoyed this novel.

This novel is great and it deserves 10 stars for artistry. That said, I would not be honest if I did not tell you that it did not ultimately grab my heart. I greatly appreciate it; I just don't love it. Hence the 4-star rating.

Why it is great art: Garcia Marquez asks the biggest question of all: how do mere mortals push back against the marauding forces of disease, war and relentless aging that lay siege on the human condition? How, especially does love survive? Accordingly, he explores every corner of love between men and women, especially as it plays out in the seismic shift between the Victorian Age and the coming of modernity in the early 20th century in an unnamed country that strongly resembles the author's Colombian homeland. Garcia Marquez starts off with a teaser: a grandmaster of chess, an unmarried man named Jeremiah de Saint-Amour has committed suicide rather than age without grace and his friend, Dr. Urbino, who is trying to soften the official word so Jeremiah will receive a burial within the church, observes how wasteful suicide is if not committed over love. But this story is not about Jeremiah or chess. It follows Dr. Urbino home where it introduces his five decades long marriage to Fermina Daza and how in just an instant, when he is chasing a pet up a tree and falls, death undoes it, leaving behind a grieving widow. And then it is about one more thing introduced in the first act: at Dr. Urbino's funeral, another man, Florentino Ariza, declares his lifelong love to Fermina, whom he had courted as an adolescent. Acts 2 - 5 go back more than 50 years, then move forward, exploring the naive romance of teenagers, their parting and the Urbino marriage. Garcia Marquez charts their hearts and loves in high detail, realistic even in his depiction of the romantic Florentino who refuses to change even as the world changes around him. In the sixth and last act, the story picks up again at the funeral and watches, after all this time, if Florentino's ardor can play out. The entwined stories reflect an age, a culture, an entire world, a complete species.

Why it did not grab my heart: I'm not sure. It is half as long as Moby Dick, yet seems twice as long. I felt like the author slapped weights on my brain, preventing me from moving through it at a more comfortable speed. I felt that I was in a dark paneled museum looking at large baroque paintings forever. I felt I was being forced to eat too much rich food at an elegant banquet . . . . you get the picture. Ultimately, the chief characters did not need me to love them and while I hugely appreciated them and how they are developed, I easily handed them off when the last page finally turned over.

Florentino Ariza's life changed the first time he laid eyes on the beautiful Fermina Daza. Their relationship began when they were both young and her just a school girl. But it lasted for many many years - in ways neither could have expected. At first their courtship was a secret one, through letters, while Fermina tried to determine how she would convince her father to let them marry. But her father had bigger plans for her. He wanted her to marry up in social class, not below, so he forbade the relationship and took her away for a long journey in an effort to get her to forget Florentino. But her father needn't have worry, because once she arrived back in town and saw Florentino, she, herself, was no longer interested and broke the relationship off abruptly.

Florentino was not one for rejection because he spends the next 50 years of his life pining for Fermina and finding ways to simply catch a glimpse of her. She goes on in life, marries an influential doctor, has children, but her marriage is not without it's own problems. Yet, she loves her husband in his own way. Still Florentino will not be dissuaded and he continues to wait hoping to someday have an opportunity to reclaim the love that he believes is his.

This novel of romance takes place in the Carribean at the turn of the century. It is a coming of age novel as much as it is one of love, historical fiction, and medicine. It is a particularly dense book - each word seems to have been specifically chosen and so it is not a novel that can be skimmed quickly - nor should it. The downfall will be if the story does not speak to the reader. This will be very individual. I, for one, was not grabbed by the story and so I found the read to be slow and at times tedious. For others that can be swept up by the romance and characters it will be a wonderful read. There is no fault to be found with the writing or translation, but this book is a great example of one that rises or falls with very personal preference.

Whenever I read a bad, boring book, I always check to see if I'm the only one with that opinion. I'm glad to confirm my opinion is shared by others. Aside from the bad plot and uninteresting characters, there was, possibly, five total pages of dialogue in the entire book. I have noticed this in other Central/South American authors' books. Too many "words", not enough "talk".

Whether to enjoy this book or not would probably best be determined by how one reads it. If for entertainment, it is a clever story, with several twists and turns, and a fairly satisfactory ending, although there were some casualties on the way. If read as a treatise on love, one would most likely gain a fairly wide ranging insight into the different types if love in the novel-although I doubt my interpretation of love was actually there!
Personally, I tried to do a bit of both, but for the story to really be a winner it should have been kinder somehow. Maybe it's me being overly sentimental and sensitive about the betrayal and portrayal of women here, I don't know, but there just seem to be too many women who are lied to, cheated and hurt, and quite satisfied with their lot.
Is Florentino Ariza's love really love? Has he given up anything in his life for Fermina Daza? Not a thing, as far as I could see, everything that he experienced was internal. He lies to her ("I've remained a virgin for you") and misreperesents himself to her completely, taking victims in the process (America Vicuna and the woman murdered by her husband, her name escapes me).
To be honest, he quite irritated me.
The description of the women as one-dimensional people who are just tools for his sexual satisfaction irritated me too. I don't mind a bit of raunch in a book, but Florentino just did not get it right. The section where Dr Juvenal Urbino and Fermina Daza discovered each other were a pleasant exception to the irritating sex in the book. Call me what you like, but sex in a book should make one smile, touch the heart and excite, not irritate.
Yet, the book as a whole, the lovely descriptions and some of the otherwise delicious scenes, made for good reading.
Garcia writes masterfully, I guess I just did not like the direction of this story or the philosophy on love that he presented. Come to think of it, I remember thinking the same thing when reading 'Of Love and Other Demons'.
A man book.

This book is filled with tedious unimportant details. The "love story" is flawed, and the main character is disgusting. The story is supposed to be of the great love between Fermina Daza and and Florintino Ariza who are in love as teens. Fermina goes on to marry another man. Florintino pines away for 50 years or so until Fermina's husband dies. In the meantime, Florintino has sex with anything on two legs. Florintino causes the death of one lover. He rapes and impregnates his house maid and molests a young schoolgirl who is his goddaughter. Oh, and there is endless details about his use of enemas. I think Amazon should have paid ME to suffer through reading this book.

The words I am about to express: They now have their own crowned goddess.
Leandaro Diaz - Epigraph to "Love in the Time of Cholera"


"Love in the Time of Cholera" (1985) - is one of two best novels by the greatest living writer, 1982 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928). It depicts many faces of love - romantic, marital, erotic, and unrequited. It is the novel about love that hits like a lightning, takes over the whole human existence, tortures like a deadly disease, and even all-consuming time has no power over it. The story about poor romantic telegraph operator Florentino Arisa's love for beauty Femina Dasa and his long waiting for her acceptance that lasted fifty one year, nine months and four days is so fascinating, interesting and unusual, that it makes you wonder over and over how it is possible to write like this:

"To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell."

"Love in the Time of Cholera" is dedicated to Mercedes Barcha Pardo, Marquez's wife for 50 years, the crowned goddess of the writer's heart. The novel (among many things) is Marquez's love letter to Mercedes. As 18 years-old law student, he first met Mercedes when she was a 13-years-old girl. Gabriel called Mercedes "the most interesting woman" he ever met. Before he left for college, he proposed to her. She agreed, but said she wanted to finish school. They wouldn't be married for fourteen years but she had always been true to him and waited for him.

The Imagination and vision of the author of "These fantastic creations of magic, metaphor and myth" (according to American critic W.MacPherson) are bewitching. His art of storytelling may be only described as magic and mesmerizing. The beauty and appeal of his language are universal. I should know - I've 're read his novels and stories translated to Russian and English and they always bring joy - no matter when, where and in what language I read them.

I lost interest in reading about one man's conquests (of all the lovely little "birds") and one woman's inability to truly care about anyone. Maybe i'm not open-minded enough, but i thought it lacked depth.I found that i kept reading it because i thought that if it was such a popular book, surely something would happen eventually. I finally decided i was wasting time and stopped 1/4 from the end. I did that with "the life of Pi" too.

This is the type of novel that I miss from my college days - the type that your professor would assign - so you surreptitiously approach with willful trepidation: that's what Marquez offers us here. Two characters who are masters of the art of 'willful trepidation'. Fermina Daza shines as the perfect wife of Dr. Urbino, unaware of her husband's infidelities, until the posthumous, mortifying encounters that she faces with the grace of a Victorian lady. Florentino Ariza, her admirer of more than 50 years, engages in 622 affairs that appear egregious in nature, but serve a purpose for the end. Although some may find this difficult to endure, it is well worth the concluding payoff - one that proves that true love does exist.

For several days, I pondered: "Do I classify this as 'literary' or 'page turner'? As an elitist reader, I sparingly label books with the 'literary' label: only ones that I envision my professor and I debating on a sunny afternoon in the courtyard. The 'page turners' are usually labeled as 'bestsellers', not for their depth, but for their voracious plot lines. This book embodied both: translated from Spanish, the vernacular requires full analysis - this is NOT a beach read. However, the surprising turns that Florentino's tortured life endures {while he awaits his *true* love} will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Marquez is a revered author - his work extraordinary. Thrilled with One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera maintained his status quo. Bravo!